Top Editors Brought In to Re-Cut The Wolfman

Of all the big films on the docket for next year, the one I’m most concerned about is The Wolfman. The second trailer for the film looked pretty badass, I’ll admit – but this movie has suffered a plagued production from the get-go. A change in directors, callbacks for reshoots and re-designs in the creature effects… It all points to a studio trying to turn lead into gold through the usual movie alchemy.

Well, the guys over at Slash Film must have magnifying glass eyes, because they spotted something deep-six buried in an article over at Variety, which names editors Mark Goldblatt and Walter Murch as the two guys hired to do a recut of The Wolfman!

This revelation comes without the usual fanfare from the blogosphere that goes with every little development on a major movie – suggesting that the studio is trying to keep the continuing problems with The Wolfman off the radar until they make it to premiere time in February. Sorry guys, we’re still watching…

Murch and Goldblatt come with some pretty strong credentials: Golblatt has cut together films like Commando, Terminator 1 & 2, First Blood Part II, Starship Troopers, Armageddon and X3, while Murch was behind films like The Godfather Trilogy, The English Patient, Talented Mr. Ripley, K-19: The Widowmaker, Jarhead and Cold Mountain. Suffice to say: these are two seasoned vets being put to the task.

I don’t know what kind of mess The Wolfman is in, but I am certain that Murch and Goldblatt working together will result in at least a watchable (if not popcorn entertaining) film. I’m too cynical to expect greatness at this point, but so long as the finished film is better than Jack Nicholson’s 1994 version of the Wolfman story, I’ll be content.

Bigger worry on my mind: If Wolfman has ended up this big a mess, should we be concerned that the film’s director, Joe Johnston (above), is going to be helming Marvel’s Captain America movie? Johnston’s resume has some real hits on it (The Rocketeer, Honey I Shrunk the Kids, Jumanji) but it also has Jurassic Park III on it as well… Hopefully whatever problems there are with The Wolfman, they’re confined to the story/script level and the actual film looks as great as the trailers make it out to be.

The Wolfmanhowls into theaters on February 10, 2010. What do you think about the editors brought in to recut the film? Good sign or bad? And how does all of this bode for Joe Johnston and Captain America?